Shower me with donations

This past Saturday we had a shower for donations to take with us to Addis Ababa when we go to bring our little guy home. I had sent out 65 invitations and we counted

55 people so our turn out was awesome.

Our Invites read:

To all the women we may know
For all the women’s children we may never know.

...but of course we invited boys and men too even though it was mostly women.

I thought it would be fitting to have it the day before Mother's Day.

We had the Starfish Theme with the Starfish story printed out at each table seating. Aubrey and Johnathan helped with the decorating and Matt and I were busy getting the food prepared for the brunch and refreshments. Here's a photo of a table we had near the donation table.

It had a photo of our little one we are waiting so patiently for, a photo of
Hannah's Hope along with a poem.

Everyone loved the set up. We also had a slide show of photos of Ethiopia and orphanages in Ethiopia along with Hannah's Hope. It was great to show everyone where all of these wonderful donations were going.

This was the table filled with the donations.

Soon turned into this.

Luckily this room in our basement isn't used much and is a great place for all of these donations. The futon that these items are on is laying down just to give you an idea. People kept asking how we were going to take all of it over to Ethiopia and we kept saying we would find a way to do it. We have about a forth already on it's way over. I am truly amazed on what can be accomplished when each person gives a little and the outcome is so great. I had wished I had taken more pictures but honestly I was way too busy haveing fun and talking to everyone. It was like it all went by way too fast. Later that evening we took the packages home and each took a turn opening them to see what kind of donations we got. It was like Christmas all over again and the kids had a blast going through it all and commenting on how much of an impact it would have on the orphans. We then organized it into sections per item. I find myself going down to the room just to look at all the wonderful stuff and think about sending it to other adopting families so they can take it with them.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!